USA prevails in battle of India-Pakistan cricket in New York
USA lay down the law as to how they wanted the Indian and Pakistani cricket fans to make the most of this one-off opportunity on American soil.
“That the one with horses?”
My initial reaction is to see if I could sense some sarcasm in his Long Island accent. We’re on Long Beach, some 25km away from the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, on the eve of India taking on Pakistan in the match that is billed to potentially put cricket as a sport on the American map for good. And I’d very carefully hand-picked my subject among the hundreds sunning themselves to quiz about cricket.
He wore a fluorescent green cap alongside multiple tattoos all over his body. In one hand, he carried a boombox. In the other a surfboard. The original question to him was if he’d heard about this behemoth of all sporting contests to be played out in his neighbourhood the next morning. And my eyes lit up when he admitted having heard about it. That is before he revealed his confusion between cricket and polo, and which one of the two involved horses. So much for America embracing the arrival of high-profile cricket, I thought.
Till the time I actually saw around a dozen NYPD cops riding their horses next to the media entry of the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium on Sunday morning. Maybe my boomboxing friend was right all along. You could see the NYPD’s presence from a fair way out and well before you got anywhere near the makeshift stadium that was built in a hurry for this World Cup in Eisenhower Park. In fact, the first glimpse of them came at least 10km before you entered the vicinity of the venue. As you’d expect, they were very animated and very in your face.
If they weren’t yelling “lower your windows and remain in your lane”, they were vigorously waving their hands and directing cars and cabs in different directions. Yelling at you and then asking you to have a nice day, in that very American cop fashion.
It’s safe to say that the overall ambience this weekend felt a lot different to the last time an India-Pakistan match attempted to take over a major foreign city. Back on the evening of October 23, 2022, the streets of Melbourne had turned into a mix of Mumbai and Karachi. Road rules seemed to have been compromised, the traffic lights seemed to have given up and like my Uber guy had said, “I’m going to drive like we’re back home otherwise I won’t be able to get you to the MCG in time”.
That was the city of Melbourne handing out the keys to the city to the Indian and Pakistani cricket fans and going, ‘Okay, put on a show and show us what you got’.
This on the other hand was still a very American show. It wasn’t them taking a back seat and enjoying whatever the cricket-mad South Asians had in store for them. This was them laying down the law, quite literally, as to how they wanted the Indian and Pakistani cricket fans to make the most of this unique and, for now, one-off opportunity at seeing their teams in action on American soil.
They’d come from everywhere. Most had flown from interstate but there were those who’d flown from places as far as Bangalore and even Karachi to be here for this iconic moment. I spotted self-driven buses filled with Indian fans from Boston and Dallas queuing up for hours to get into the VIP parking lots that were set up all around Eisenhower Park.
They’d already spent a lot of money to get to Nassau County before you even take into account the massive amounts for the tickets. Access to the clubhouse area below the media centre was sold at $US5000 ($7590) per head, which included unlimited burgers, samosas, beer and wine. And it was packed to bits. Much like the $US10,000 ($15,800) section on the other side of the stadium for the VVIPs, Bollywood stars and other dignitaries alike.
The hero of the show for the first hour or so as rain threatened to play spoilsport was the MC on the ground, who unlike my friend on Long Beach, had brushed up on his cricket knowledge. And he made sure every player was given a special welcome to New York, announcing their names like he was WWF’s Howard Finkel and we were 1.5km down the road at the old Nassau Coliseum and this was WrestleMania 2. “Virat Koooooohliiii ….Haaardik Paaaandyaaa..” to name a couple.
You did wonder as the intermittent showers kept everyone at bay about whether the International Cricket Council or the other organisers could have done more to spread the buzz around this epic encounter more than they did. Save a couple of random, and rather negligible, public-service ads about trains to the venue for this match, there was nothing done to capture the essence of the America beyond the South Asian diaspora, or so it seemed.
I went to the Yankee Stadium a couple of days prior to see the LA Dodgers get over the line with two runs in the 11th innings over the Yankees. And wondered why they couldn’t have had Virat Kohli throw the first pitch or at least make some sort of announcement to the near-capacity 47,000+ in attendance there.
But those who did make it did ensure that the atmosphere at the first-ever cricket stadium on the East Coast was like you’d expect. Loud, raucous and a bit unhinged, yet very respectful between the fans of both teams. Even if the Indians did, not surprisingly, outnumber their counterparts by close to a 85:15 split.
The match itself was a classic, despite the lack of drama we witnessed at the MCG two years ago, with Pakistan choking and managing to lose a seemingly unlosable game. Over time, even some part of America might begin to understand the vagaries of cricket. But even they will struggle to ever fathom the vagaries of Pakistan cricket. This was the perfect illustration of the ridiculousness of Pakistan cricket.
Not that the Indian team or the fans cared one bit. This was their moment, yet again, another World Cup win over the arch rivals, this time in the most unique of settings. A few hours later, I spotted a couple of cars with Indian fans waving their flags from the windows and their sunroofs down the same road that earlier that day was barricaded and filled with NYPD officers. They were all gone by now. The keys to the city were back in their possession. You wonder if they’d even been handed out in the first place.
More Coverage
Aussies into semis despite second washout against Afghanistan
Australia is through to the Champions Trophy semi finals despite rain forcing play to be abandoned during their chase of Afghanistan’s target of 274 at Lahore.
Billion dollar league: Private ownership on the cards for BBL
Cricket Australia is investigating how private equity could enhance the Big Bash and return the league to its former status as the undisputed No.2 T20 league on earth.